Interview: Zack Carlson,Operations Manager,Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest turns 10 this year but don’t expect Austin’s genre festival to celebrate its birthday with pizza, ponies, and bounce houses. Unless, of course, the pizza is big enough to be topped with a human centipede, the ponies are flesh-eating zombies, and the bounces houses are haunted. Actually, Fantastic Fest promises Armageddon when it throws its 10-year-birthday on opening night on Sept. 18. There will be human piñatas, a break-dancing contest, and a food fight. Fantastic Fest opens Sept. 18 with Kevin Smith’s Tusk and the world premiere of the Tim League-produced ABCs of Death 2, and closes Sept. 25 with the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Nightcrawler. Other notable films include The Babadook, Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, Everly, The Guest, Honeymoon, The Hive, Horns, Housebound, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, V/H/S Viral, the extended director’s cut of Nymphomaniac, and John Wick, with star Keanu Reeves making his second trip to Fantastic Fest. In addition to the Fantastic Fest favorites—Fantastic Feud, Fantastic Debates, the Chaos Reigns Karaoke Party, and the Nerd Rap Throwdown—Leonard Maltin will preside over Maltin’s movie trivia Game Tournament and the newly reopened Highball hosts a live edition of the Comedy Central show The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail.
﻿Aired: Sept. 11, 2014﻿Web site: http://fantasticfest.com/